


Last Time/This Time

by charlotte123456789



Series: Harry Potter One-Shots [34]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action, F/M, Fire, Harry Potter Has a Saving People Thing, Love, Rescue, smoke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 05:42:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29380110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charlotte123456789/pseuds/charlotte123456789
Summary: Last time it had all gone wrong. This time I knew better.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley
Series: Harry Potter One-Shots [34]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2157993
Kudos: 2





	Last Time/This Time

It had only been five hours since she had been missing but I knew that five hours could feel like an eternity in _his_ presence. Now I had to find her quickly and get out. 

_“Sanuspirantes,”_ I whispered.

The bubble formed around my head as intended and I could finally start to make my way into the building.

It was already filling quickly with smoke from the smokescreen spell cast by the other members of my team. They were entering from the east, whereas I was entering from the west. We had already shut off the floo points and had cast an Anti-Apparition ward over the whole of the property.

I had learnt from the _last time_. It had been a trap. They had taken Luna and I had tried to rush in like a knight in shining armour. Everything had been booby-trapped, from the doors I had tried to rush through to the stairs I had tried to climb. It had been absolute carnage — explosions, mass curses, wards covering certain corridors that had triggered tidal waves of water. I had only just made it out alive, let alone Luna who was now left with a permanent limp, due to my idiocy.

 _This time_ no one would be escaping.

I had three men cast the smokescreen spell, it could twist and wind it’s way into every nook and cranny, ensuring that the visibility within was minimal. It had the added bonus of being a specific _claggy_ type of smoke that coated everything in a heavy soot powder. It was difficult to breathe in, causing wracking coughs if someone unfortunate enough got trapped in it without a Bubble-Head Charm applied.

The Floo points had also been shut off this time, no chance of them fleeing to some other dark and ancient house that we would never be able to get into. No. That would not be happening this time. Another advantage of the smoke that was doing its best to fill the house was that it wasn’t just smoke, it was _magic smoke._ It had the added hidden benefit of dampening the oxygen available, displacing it to a degree that it was impossible for any human being to stay conscious. It was all still there but harder to breathe, harder to get _just enough_ to stay awake. It _also_ meant that no fire, magic or not, would light without great struggle.

Additionally, I had taken care this time to get Bill to ward the whole house. They had thought themselves to be clever _last time_ . We had blocked the Floo Network but they had taken to Apparating around the house, _luring_ us to set off the traps they had laid so carefully. _This_ time however, they would be in for a shock.

If they managed to hold on against the smoke, then tried a Floo point only to discover in vain that it didn’t work, they would be in for the lovely surprise that they could _not_ Disapparate and save themselves.

This time I had made sure it was _perfect_.

Now I _just_ had to find them. And that wasn’t an easy feat as the grounds as well as the building were gigantic.

I scoured each room I came across slowly. None of the original gung ho I had displayed the previous time. I had learnt my lesson, I was cautious now.

So far, I had disabled no more than six different traps, all nasty curses. Some designed to destroy the room I had been in, others slow acting curses to destroy my muscles over the next month until my heart could beat no longer.

I picked apart each one so thoroughly that _no one_ ever had any further chance of recasting it using the same original intent. That wasn’t an easy thing to do, but I’d learnt a few things during the last couple of years and curse breaking was one of the more useful skills.

No matter how many rooms I had checked up until this point, I had yet to find her, though. My belief that she would be kept in the basement had been shot down as soon as I had suggested it. They wouldn’t use something so overt to keep prisoners, it was much too _cliché_ for them.

So I kept walking. And searching.

I couldn’t let my guard down, no matter what. Each room I came across led to more disappointment rising within me as I couldn’t find her, yet I couldn’t be disheartened or lose my cool. I was an expert, a _pro._ I couldn’t let my emotions play a part in this, no matter how much I wanted to.

I checked six rooms, seven, eight. The next floor; one, two, three, four.

All nothing except curses.

No people, friend or foe.

I silently continued on my path, _a loud man was a dead man_.

I stopped suddenly, twisting around although I could see nothing through the smoke. Had there been a noise? I swore I had heard something.

I paused, hoping that I hadn’t been wrong.

_-Thump-_

I was not just hearing things. I backtracked the way I had come from, waiting for the sound again. 

_-Thump-_

I spun around to face the wall it was coming from, feeling my heartbeat accelerate. I silently hoped that this was it. That I had found her. It had to be, it just _had_ to be her!

“ _Evanesco.”_

The wall vanished as intended. The hidden room was dark and dank, the only light source coming from behind me, but I didn’t need light to know that I had found who I had been looking for.

“Ginny,” I whispered, not quite sure she was real.

“Stop looking at me like that, Harry, and help me up. Please don’t jostle me too much. I think my legs are broken.” 

It was her. Beautiful, bloody and unbroken. I snapped out of my stupor at once and cast a silent Bubble-Head Charm over her before the smoke could start to affect her breathing. It didn’t do any good to have her start coughing before I had reached across to give her a hand up. It would only alert her kidnappers and make our escape even more difficult.

“Bloody hell, Harry. I told you _not_ to jostle me, so why did you drag me up and shake me?” I saw that her skin was a stark white in the dark light, her legs both a bloody mess as she shivered against me, her obvious tiredness could be seen clearly to me as her eyes continued to droop with every blink.

“Sorry, sorry, just need to get you out and then you can shout at me all you want,” I whispered, trying to apologise yet remain quiet. I was still unsure of who could still very much be lurking nearby as it had remained radio silence for everyone.

“Fine. But once we are out of here, I am going to want a full explanation of why you have ended up the hero again, when we’ve previously had that _nice_ long discussion last time about my thoughts on this.”

I gulped, wincing at the memory. That had been a _long_ conversation with a very resolute ending from Ginny that I was no longer the hero and nor was I required to be.

“But, Ginny, they took you,” I pleaded, hoping to have some leeway seeing as this involved her.

“We _will_ discuss this later, Harry. Now help get me out of here. I want to go home.”

I nodded, it was easier in the long run if I went along with it. She already looked awful and I didn’t want to argue anymore and stress her out. I slung her arm properly over my shoulder, her legs swinging between us as I tried not to jostle them too much as we stumbled out.

The corridor dark with smoke and a thick layer of the sooty substance the smoke was made from now coated every inch of the floor. What I knew to be ornate gold hooks on the wall for portraits now a rusty copper, the soot eating away at the coating. Just like this house; if you peeled back the nice exterior of the people you’d find the dark and dirty truth hidden inside.

I managed to lead us back the way I came, now free of curses after my careful study on the way through. Finally, we made it back to the outside light of day where we were able to pop our bubbles, now away from the smoke.

“I love you,” I said as I continued to lead her away from the house and away to where I would finally be able to Apparate us away from here.

“I love you too, even if you aren’t supposed to be _Mr Hero_ anymore. Now let’s get out of here.”

I nodded and wrapped my arms around her.

Away, back to safety. They wouldn’t be getting Ginny again. Not on my watch.


End file.
